Lake Stevens looks to join Sno-Isle Library District

Published 11:21 pm Sunday, February 24, 2008

LAKE STEVENS — The library here was built in the 1970s and has a capacity of 31 people.

“Lake Stevens has grown quite a bit since then,” said George Vasil, co-chairman of the city’s Library Campaign Committee.

That fledgling group expects to have a lot more to do in the coming months. The first official step has been taken toward building the city a new library.

The City Council voted last week to declare its intent for the city to join the Sno-Isle Library District. This means city voters will be asked if property owners should pay a tax directly to the district for it to run the library at 1804 Main St. Currently, the city pays for the service through a contract.

The city hopes to have the tax measure on the ballot in May. If it’s approved, owners of property in the city would pay 31.3 cents per $1,000 of assessed value per year, amounting to $78.25 per year for a $250,000 home.

This would pay only for the operation of the library — a new library building would require another property tax levy. This election could be held as soon as February 2009, city and Sno-Isle officials said.

It’s not sure how much a new library would cost, or where it would be. The city and Sno-Isle have had cursory discussions about including a library with the city’s planned campus on Grade Road, but nothing has been determined.

The national standard for a library for a city of more than 13,000, as Lake Stevens is now, is 17,000 square feet, according to Chy Ross, Lake Stevens’ managing librarian. The current library is about 2,500 square feet.

There is no separate meeting space in the library for special events, Ross said. Children’s story times are held in the morning before the library opens to the public, and popular summer reading groups have to meet in the community center building next door, he said.

“Attendance for some of these things would break our fire code,” Ross said.

As bigger building would make room for more books, computers and resources as well as meeting space, he said. Historically, when a community gets a bigger library, more people use it, Ross said.

Vasil said the computers are an especially important consideration, with not all families able to afford them.

A library, he said, “is not just a building that houses books.”

Having taxpayers pay directly for the service would free up some funds for the city of Lake Stevens. It expects to pay $515,392 this year for library service, a sharp hike from the 2007 total of $298,726 because the city has grown through annexation.

“There’s a lot things we could do with that,” city administrator Jan Berg told the City Council last Monday.

She mentioned parks, sidewalks and staffing as possibilities, with nothing decided yet.

“We can get more specific as we go forward,” Mayor Vern Little said.

Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.